Gandhi

Growing up Gandhi

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born October 2, 1869 in the town of Porbandar in Gujarat, India. He was affectionately known as "Mohan" by his family.

“I do not remember having ever told a lie, during this short period, either to my teachers or to my school-mates, I used to be very shy and avoided all company. My books and my lessons were my sole companions. To be at school at the stroke of the hour and to run back home as soon as the school closed - that was my daily habit. I literally ran back, because I could not bear to talk to anybody. I was even afraid lest anyone should poke fun at me.”

Excerpt From: M. K. Gandhi & Mahadev Desai. “An Autobiography.”

Life Lessons

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi studied law in England and later worked in South Africa where he began his life of service centered around the ideals of Ahimsa (nonviolence or love) and Satyagraha (holding firmly to truth).

Noble Thoughts

"Let noble thoughts come to us from all sides." - Rig Veda

“I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be stuffed. I want the culture of all lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any.”

- Mahatma Gandhi

Ashram Living

In order to live the simple truths for himself, Gandhi established ashrams where residents would seek to guide their lives by spiritual idealism in fulfillment of practical aims. The ashrams provided the space for experimentation. In them and under his careful observation, a microcosm of humanity could evolve practical means consistent with and leading to a larger truth.

In these ashrams Gandhiji gathered together people of different religions, different classes, and different levels of education. All were equally respected.

The ashram life proved to be his laboratory for experiments with Truth. Through his own experiments with life, Mahatma Gandhi examined a course to develop the means of Satyagraha and Ahimsa within himself.

Selfless Service

Mahatma Gandhi translated and interpreted the Bhagavad Gita as "The Gospel of Selfless Service."

In it he wrote: “While acting, remember that action leads to bondage unless it is performed in a spirit of sacrifice. Sacrifice means exerting oneself for the benefit of others, in a word, it means service. And where service is rendered for service's sake, there is no room for attachment, likes and dislikes. Perform such a sacrifice; render such service. When Brahma created the universe, He created sacrifice along with it, as it were, and said to humankind, ‘Go forth into the world; serve one another and prosper. Look upon all creatures as God. Serve them as God’...” (Excerpt from "The Gita According to Gandhi"

Gandhi believed that the sphere of our service would eventually enlarge itself to embrace the whole world. It is through our selfless service that we identify with all of life. It is through selfless service that we remove the pain of separation. In realization of the universal Self of us all, we will cause no suffering. When our thoughts, speech and actions reflect this realization, we serve all of life with devotion.

Prayer and Meditation

"Prayer does for the purification of the mind, what the bucket and the broom do for the cleaning up of our physical surroundings. And that is why we always commence our proceedings with prayer. No matter whether the prayer we recite is the Hindu prayer or the Muslim or the Parsi, its function is essentially the same, namely, purification of the heart."

Mahatma Gandhi said, “My life is my message.” He requested us not to turn merely to his writings and speeches but to the very actions of his life. What he wanted to communicate or express to successive generations would be observable by his daily living. His “experiment” with truth was his life message. Through each aspect of his life, whether it was spiritual, physical, or mental, he continually aspired to perfect each as a means of realization. Over the course of his life, his actions evolved toward what he hoped would be more enlightened living.